City Council approves revised contract for property assessments

Monday

May 12, 2014 at 9:21 PM

Following a recommendation from the Finance Committee, Milford City Council voted to revoke a portion of the assessments changes recently made and approved a new contract with Tyler Technologies, the company contracted to maintain the city’s property assessment records.

By Maddy Lauriamaddy.lauria@doverpost.com@Milford_Maddy

Following a recommendation from the Finance Committee, Milford City Council voted to revoke a portion of the assessments changes recently made and approved a new contract with Tyler Technologies, the company contracted to maintain the city’s property assessment records.

On May 1, the Finance Committee held a public meeting with representatives from Tyler Technologies to discuss recent notices of a change in assessment that were mailed to more than 2,100 property owners throughout city limits. Finance Committee Chairman Allen S. “Skip” Pikus said he called the meeting to clear up confusion among council members, residents and business owners who received the letters.

During that meeting, it was determined that part of the annual contract with Tyler Technologies, a company contracted in 2012 to handle the city’s property assessments in lieu of an in-house tax assessor, included “annual sales and economic review, making adjustments as needed to stay within IAAO standards.” That portion of the contract regarded the company’s contracted duty to realign property values that were out of whack with market values, regardless of construction and deconstruction.

The vote made by City Council during its regular meeting on Monday night also eliminated that portion of the agreement, amending the contract to include revaluations of properties experiencing construction or deconstruction, but eliminating yearly revaluations of properties that simply may be out of line with market trends.

“[I] move that all letters sent out to property owners in April, whose property values were adjusted based solely on analyzed market and adjusted numbers and not on any improvements made since 2012, will be voided, that those property values revert back to their 2012 values,” Pikus said, reading from a prepared statement. “However, Tyler will continue to perform inspections and handle improvements and change land data as required, continue to value all new improvements and matters related to building permits and similar improvements and/or demolitions, and they will visit 10 percent of the city properties each year of the ten year cycle…This annual field work would prevent the City of Milford from ever needing a city-wide data collection effort again at the time of the 10-year reassessment anticipated to be in the year 2022. There is an amended version of the Tyler contract, which reflects this motion.”

A complete reassessment of all city properties must be conducted before 2022, as Milford’s City Charter states that it is required that reassessments occur at least every 10 years, according to Milford City Clerk Terri Hudson. Tyler Technology will uphold its other duties, including field work on 10 percent of properties annually and data collection to prepare for the next mandated property reassessment.

Councilmembers did not discuss the issue at length, and voted 6-0 to void a portion of more than 2,100 assessment changes and approve a revised contract with Tyler Technologies. The Ward One Council seat was vacant due to Bryan Shupe’s recent appointment to mayor and Ward Four Councilwoman Katrina Wilson wasn’t present at the meeting until after the vote was cast.

According to the City of Milford’s website, assessments are performed quarterly in January, April, July and October. Those property owners who were notified of a change in assessment in April can file a petition of appeal by May 15, with an informal appeal review in May and a formal appeal review on June 24. For more information, contact City Hall at (302) 424-3712.